A particular saturated hydrofluorocarbon refrigerant, such as R32, has lower GWP and exhibits lower pressure loss than prevailing refrigerants. Accordingly, this refrigerant has been increasingly widely used in refrigeration cycle apparatuses. However, it has been found that R32 has such a property that a discharge temperature of the refrigerant discharged from a compressor is higher than those of traditional refrigerants, such as R410A. Techniques for reducing the discharge temperature have been developed.
Examples of related-art apparatuses using these techniques include a refrigeration cycle apparatus that uses refrigerant containing 70 wt % R32 and includes a refrigeration cycle including a compressor, a four-way valve, an outdoor heat exchanger, an expansion valve, a valve, an indoor heat exchanger, a gas-liquid separator, and an accumulator connected in series in that order (see, for example, Patent Literature 1). The refrigeration cycle apparatus controls the compressor or the expansion valve such that the R32-containing refrigerant sucked into the compressor has a quality of 0.65 to 0.85, thus reducing a discharge temperature of the refrigerant discharged from the compressor.